


Suffer the Children

by Dorksidefiker



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Child Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 04:53:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorksidefiker/pseuds/Dorksidefiker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, the kindest thing you can do is let them go.  It's not something a Guardian does lightly, and it's never easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suffer the Children

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [This Prompt](http://rotg-kink.dreamwidth.org/2200.html?thread=2978200#cmt2978200) of the Kink Meme.

Three hundred years, and Jack Frost had seen them a thousand times. They were children only in body; whatever hope, joy, or wonder they'd ever had had been tormented out of them a long time ago. He didn't see them quite as often now, but they were still there.  
  
Each one of them broke his heart.  
  
The one Jack watched now was too thin, with eyes more like a frightened rabbit than a little girl, and her cough was too big for her little body. Every breath rattled in her chest, and she huddled in the darkest corner of the rotting shed, hugging herself for warmth.  
  
There was a time when Jack would have sat with her, calling in the cold until the girl stopped breathing. But that was _before_ he became a Guardian. Guardians didn't _do_ that, and Jack was a Guardian. There had to be something he could do, right?  
  
"Hey," Jack whispered. The girl's eyes focused on him, finally seeing him. For a moment, Jack wished he was still invisible. He sat down next to her, keeping his movements slow and his smile gentle. "I'm Jack. Is it okay if I sit with you a bit?"  
  
The girl drew her knees up to her chest, but she nodded slowly. Jack maintained a careful distance; he knew what would happen to the child if he tried to hold her. He'd done it before.  
  
Instead, he made little snow sculptures and told dumb jokes until she fell asleep.  
  
Sandman crept in like a silent shadow, expression curious as he looked from Jack to the little girl, dusting her with golden dream sand.  
  
"I don't know what to do, Sandy," Jack murmured. Sandman floated around the child, brushing a hollow cheek with his finger. He took her gently, careful not to wake her from the dream he'd given, and moved her on to Jack's lap. "Wait, I can't- she'll _freeze_!"  
  
Sandman nodded, a swirl of dream sand falling from his hands to the girl. She fell into a deeper slumber; not even her cough managed to wake her back up. She dreamed of warm, sunny days and easy breathing, and she died before dawn. Sandman gently lead Jack away from the tiny, cold body.  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
"What _now_?" Bunnymund groaned as Sandman lead Jack into the Warren. "I haven't got -- what happened to him?" His tone gentled as he took in the distant look in Jack's eyes, and he shooed the half painted egg he'd been working on away.  
  
Shapes formed and dissolved quickly above Sandman's head.  
  
"Oh. One of _those_." Bunnymund crouched so he was on eye level with Jack, taking both the winter spirit's hands in his paws. He spoke gently, talking about children who had come and gone, the ones for whom life was one torment after another. The ones who survived as long as they did only because the world hadn't managed to kill them yet. The ones who lived nightmares worse than anything Pitch could conjure.  
  
"We do everything we can for them, but sometimes... sometimes it's better to give them an easy way out. It's the hardest choice any of us can make, and it's not one we ever make lightly."  
  
Quietly, Jack began to sob. Bunnymund let him, rubbing a paw up and down his back until the crying stopped.


End file.
